My Game My Psychology

Thursday, 21 June 2012

Once upon a time, the animals decided that they
should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world, so they
organised a school. They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing,
swim­ming and flying. To make it easier
to administer, all of the animals took all of the subjects.

The duck was excellent at swimming. In fact, he was better than his
instructor. However, he made only
passing marks in flying and was very poor at running. Since he was so slow in running, he had to
drop his swimming class and do extra running.
This caused his webbed feet to become badly worn, meaning that he
dropped to an average mark in swimming.
Fortunately, “average” was acceptable, therefore nobody worried about it
– except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of the class in
running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because he had so
much makeup work to do in swimming. The squirrel was excellent in climbing, but
he encountered constant frustration in flying class because his teacher
insisted that he start from the ground up instead of from the treetop
down. He developed cramps from
overexertion, so he ended up with a C in climbing and a D in running.

The eagle was a real problem student and was
severely disciplined for being a non-conformist. In climbing class, he beat all of the others
to the top, but insisted on using his own way of getting there!

The principle here is that we each have our own
strengths and need to be working hard to maximise them, not handicap our
potential by becoming good at something that isn’t natural for us

Who are you?

Who are you? Are you a duck, rabbit, squirrel, or an eagle? Just kidding! But on a more serious note this story is about you, and through this you should understand that you all are so different from each other and that no two athletes are the same, even though they are playing the same game. Every individual is so different from another and that makes every individual unique and special. You are unique and you are special! And what is this uniqueness? Well it’s you who have to find it out, and I can only help but you have to find it because you know yourself better that anybody else. The way you talk, walk, hold your bat/racket, play your shots, understand and, respond to the situation etc. all are different from the rest of the players. And that difference is your uniqueness. The way you do things, become your signature. That signature is unique and special. You may evaluate your performance after every game but you cannot evaluate your uniqueness.

You have
your strengths, and you have your weaknesses, accept them not just strengths but also weaknesses, consider your weakness as an opportunity that will help you improve your game, do not run away from them, they are all yours
but also remember they are not YOU. Most of the times you confuse yourself by
considering your strengths and weaknesses as you or your uniqueness. And thus place your confidence on your
strength and weakness like when you know that you are stronger than your
opponent or you have some advantage over your opponent in the game then suddenly your level of confidence shoots up. But when in the match if you realise that it’s not that easy
to beat your opponent as you thought earlier, and that he has improved a lot from his past performance you suddenly see a deep steep
drop in your level of confidence. Thus your confidence level keeps fluctuating
throughout the match or tournament. But if you place your confidence on your
uniqueness (your ‘SELF’/ ‘TRUE SELF’)
then the level of your confidence will not get affected by the result or the advantages. Finding this uniqueness or true self is the key to consistent good performance.

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it

Creating a niche for
yourself

We all
have idols, role models, or people who inspire us; in our earlier stages of our
career we try to copy their game, style on and off the field. One of my friends who is a first class
cricketer use to have this ‘player of the week’ thing. ‘Player of the week’ for
him was like whichever international player has had performed best in that week he
would copy that player and he would be that player for a week, so one week he was Sachin Tendulkar, another week he
was Michal Clarke, then Rahul Dravid and so on and so forth. It is not wrong to copy your idol but it is more important to find your own style, your uniqueness! If
you keep on copying your idol and do not discover your signature, your uniqueness
then you are finished, nobody needs you, as you are not adding anything new in
the game.

I
always hear players say when they don’t get selected in the team, “you know what; s/he has taken my place in the
team, next season I’ll take his/her”. I wonder if they are playing musical chair. Do you think can anybody ever take Sachin Tendulkar,
Michael Schumacher, Roger Federer, Vishwanathan Anand, or Lance Armstrong’s
place? Never because they have created a niche for themselves, they have created a place for themselves, which nobody can
take. Its about understanding who you are and what and how you enjoy your game. When you find your signature, your uniqueness you will come to
know that your competition is not with others but it’s with yourself and then when you start beating your past records a day will come when no body would dare to take your place, and it will be always yours. The day you
realise this you will accept your weaknesses as you accept your strengths. Find out
your uniqueness, find out what makes you special, find out your signature and
create a niche for yourself which no can take away from you. Be proud of who
you are, stop copying or emulating others…… just be YOURSELF!!

Always be a first rate version of yourself, instead of a second rate version of somebody else

Thursday, 14 June 2012

Sport is not just for physical
fitness or a recreational activity, but there is something more to it. Something
for everybody whether you love to play, watch or just talk about the sport. Look
at sports from a different perspective and you will discover a whole new world
– a magical potion to live a more fulfilling and enriching life.

Winning or losing a match is not
the only thing in a sport but there is something ‘bigger’ than that. You win
some you lose some but this ‘bigger’ thing will always remain with you. Sports
can actually be a metaphor for life and therefore when you participate in
competitive sport or observe competition very carefully, you learn different
skills and/or virtues/values like setting goals, handling pressure,
prioritizing things, handling success, failures, respect, cooperation etc. These
skills or values are linked to self-management that will always remain with you
and will mould your personality.

The lessons you learn through
sport enable you to make healthy lifestyle choices, meet challenges head-on and
work with others to achieve goals bigger than yourself. Whether you play the
game or you enjoy observing it the lessons you learn can be applied to any
section of your life.

Here are a few life skills and
values that you learn from participating or carefully observing competitive
sport:

1.Cooperation:
Be it an individual game or a team game a player has to work in a team. The
player is quiet dependent on his/her team for peak performance and similarly it’s
very important that s/he contributes to other team members’ performance as well.
One very good example for this is cricket, a batsman is unable to score a run
without his partner and a bowler cannot do much if his fielders are not
fielding properly. Sports can help shift focus from ‘I’ to ‘We”. Sharing the
responsibility and also the credit of success is vital for teamwork.

SUCCESS ISN’T SOMETHING THAT JUST HAPPENS –
SUCCESS IS LEARNED, SUCCESS IS PRACTICED AND THEN IT IS SHARED

2.Respect:
In a team respect is very important. For building a very strong and positive
team it is very important that you have to respect your team members. ‘Sportsmanship’
not only allows you to respect your team members but also makes you to respect
your competitors. It’s very important to understand that your competitor is not
your rival but an instrument that helps you to show your extra ordinary skills.
The better your opponent the better you have to play. In every sport after the
match is over both the competitors meet each other to shake their hands and complement
each other for their game, that’s respect.

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HONOR YOUR FIERCEST
OPPONENT: THE BETTER YOUR OPPONENT, THE BETTER YOU HAVE TO BE

3.Pushing
your limits: When you play in a competition, whether you win or lose with
your opponent is not as important as winning with self. Sports teaches you to
push your limits, raising the bar every day. It asks you to come out of your
comfort zone, trying things that you haven’t attempted before, stretching
yourself beyond your self-imposed limits, competing with yourself, making and
breaking your own records.

THE CHALLENGE IS NOT TO WIN, BUT TO CONQUER
THE FEAR. IT IS NOT OTHER PEOPLE YOU HAVE TO BEAT, IT IS YOURSELF

4.Resilience:
It means an ability to bounce back after a setback. It is not possible that you
win all the matches you play. As you have highs in your career you will have
lows too, but what is more important is bouncing back from your failures,
setbacks, and mistakes. Falling down is part of life but getting up quickly
makes the difference. Thus believing in yourself, practicing hard, facing
challenges/ adversities with courage and focusing on the right things gives you
the key to success.

TOUGH TIMES NEVER LAST BUT TOUGH PEOPLE DO

5.Focus on
what is within ‘your control’: There are many factors that play important
role when you play a match like, your performance, climate, opponent’s game, referee’s
decision, coach’s presence etc. Of these factors there are a few factors which
you can control and there are many which you cannot control. Most of your time
and energy is wasted by focusing on and trying to control the factors which are
beyond your control and that adversely affect your performance. Through sports
you learn that nothing matters more in a game than your performance and this is
the only factor that is in your control and you learn to let go all others that
are beyond.

ADVERSITY CAUSES
SOME MEN TO BREAK, AND OTHERS TO BREAK RECORDS

6.Self-
confidence: Many people believe that
confidence comes from achieving targets or results or with success. But as the
results fluctuate your level of confidence also starts fluctuating. When you
win you are high on confidence and when you lose you are low. But through
sports you learn that your confidence does not depend upon the result of your
previous match or current match or on your opponent of the match, but it
depends on your skills be it physical, technical and psychological. Your focus
is more on giving your 100% today than on what had happened in the last game.

BETTER PLAYER DOES NOT WIN BUT THE PLAYER
WHO PLAYS BETTER WINS

These are just a few lessons or
life skills and values that you learn from your sport but it’s only when you
look beyond the winning and losing part of the game. Don’t just play your sport…..
‘live it’ and don’t just watch a sport……..observe and inculcate it. Go beyond
playing and watching. If you can look beyond it, it’s a win-win
situation for you. You win a lot and this remains with you throughout your life
and that would reflect in anything and everything you do. Don’t just focus on
becoming a winner focus on becoming a champion.

CHARACTER IS THAT WHICH REVEALS MORAL PURPOSE, EXPOSING THE CLASS OF
THINGS A MAN CHOOSES OR AVOIDS

Thursday, 7 June 2012

THEN: The Story goes back some six or seven years from now… I had just started my practice in the field of sports psychology. The word sports psychology was not a very known word then, during that time Psychology was mostly associated with the clinical field. People always wondered “whats the role of a psychologist in sports”. I still remember my very first meeting with my first team which was a district level cricket team. They had this big Question Mark on their faces and some of them had this “not for me” attitude. Challenging job! Players would come to my sessions only because their coach asked them to meet me, but for them it was “I am fine and I don’t need your help”. This went to such an extent that some of the players started calling me ‘psycho’. But as we started knowing each other and I started contributing my bit to their performance, they slowly started accepting me in their team. And then after a few days everybody started coming to me with their issues or to discuss ways through which they could improve their game. It was fun working with them.

Now: In these seven years of working with more than 500 players, their coaches and parents, across sports disciplines and levels, one thing I can say is that now people are quiet aware of the ‘word’ sports Psychology but most of them still have this question “whats the role of a psychologist in sports?” There are very few players, parents and coaches who know that you don’t necessarily have to have a problem to meet a sports psychologist. A few days back a state level badminton player’s mother called me and said, ” the coach had asked us to contact you, but i don’t want to bring my child to your place for i don’t want to let people know that my child is having sessions with a psychologist and also this would affect his self confidence”. This is a very normal first meeting conversation for me. Most of the time my first session goes with answering to the question of what is my (Sports Psychologists) role or what is sports psychology?

This gave me an idea of writing a blog “My Game My Psychology” on sports psychology, the objective is to generate awareness for this very interesting field of psychology, to share my experience and to pen down the different techniques that I use with my players. So from next article lets start exploring this field of psychology and for today just to give you an idea, I leave you with these cases where sports psychology techniques can help:

Scene I: ‘Rahul’, a 13 year old Table Tennis Player. Rahul performs much better in practice than during competition. His practice game is flawless, but in competition his performance is below par. He feels free and loose in practice and then is plagued with doubts or indecision in the competitive arena. Something changes between practice and competition.

Scene II: ‘Mansi’, a 20 year old athlete. After an injury she has physically 100 % recovered, but she can’t perform the way she did pre-injury. She is afraid of re-injury and this causes her to play tentatively. She has lost her confidence and wonders if she can return to previous performance levels pre-injury.

Scene III: ‘Adi’, a 15 year old cricketer- batsman loses focus and has mental lapses during critical times of the game. When up to bat while chasing for a higher target, with 4 out and the game unchanging, has pressure to produce runs for his coach, teammates and for himself. He commits simple errors that he wouldn’t normally do in other less threatening situations.